Sharing lunch was recently on the menu at Northamptonshire’s Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s Wellbeing Festival as a great opportunity for menopausal women to offer each other support whilst eating a nutritious meal together.

The police federation have carried out a survey across all forces (6315 people responded). Talking Menopause was at the Menopause Action Group (MAG) conference in Wakefield when these results were shared.

Too many women experiencing the menopause suffer in silence at work and feel unable to seek the support that could transform their working life. The reluctance felt by many women to discuss menopausal symptoms is understandable, but the menopause transition need not be an awkward topic and there should be no need for women to feel isolated and scared to broach the subject.

I was rudely awakened early one morning with severe pain raging through my lower abdomen. That was 6 years ago. I’d buried my head and put it off until 'I was older'. Now needing to know, I found lots of information in so many places; it’s mind-blowing.

Phew – what a month. We’ve started the menopause conversation with hundreds of women and line managers. Hearing from a senior male fire leader talking about vaginal dryness in front of over a hundred women certainly got our attention – brave, or foolish, who knows?

In our last blog we asked the question “How can I start to raise awareness of menopause in the workplace”. It feels more than ever, that this is very relevant as menopause is a media hotspot right now.

Here at Talking Menopause we often get asked: “How can I start to raise awareness of menopause in the workplace?” And this is a great question, it’s this very question for which we exist! So, what can we say?